


Black King, White Knight

by Erandri



Series: 365 Days of McDanno [6]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Leverage Fusion, Art Thief Steve, FBI Agent Danny, First Kiss, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 05:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12952098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erandri/pseuds/Erandri
Summary: Danny has spent his entire career trying to put Steve McGarrett behind bars. Now, Steve is his only chance at getting his daughter back.





	Black King, White Knight

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from a line in Leverage episode 1.01

_Four Years Ago_

“Freeze, McGarrett,” Danny yells and the black-clad figure in front of him skids to a halt just before the roof ledge. Danny flips off the safety for his gun and points it at McGarrett as he slowly turns around.

“Is there a problem, Agent?” McGarrett asks and even in the dark of the night, Danny can see his smug smile. He raises his hands slowly in deference to Danny’s gun, the small, marble figurine he just stole still in his hand.

“Come on, Steve. The game’s over, give me the statue and let me take you in,” Danny says, holding out his hand. Steve doesn’t do anything and for a moment he thinks that McGarrett will cooperate. He should know better. “McGarrett,” Danny warns as Steve takes one step backward, then another so that his heels are hanging over the edge of the building. Danny has just enough time to clock the rope and realize what Steve plans to do before Steve launches himself off the edge of the building.

Danny shouts his name and runs after him, his heart in his throat as he skids to a stop and peers over the edge just in time to see Steve safely repelling the last few feet to the ground. He curses under his breath and breathes a sigh of relief as Steve gives him a friendly wave and takes off running down the street. “This is Agent Williams,” he calls in just as soon as he gets his heart under control again, “suspect is fleeing on foot, headed south on Henry Street. The statue is in his possession.”

—

_Present_

He’s not sure what exactly he expected would happen the next time he ran into McGarrett, but standing in a Boston bar while a guy the size of a whale tries to intimidate him into leaving was not on the list. “I think you’re in the wrong place,  _brah_ ,” the guy says, squaring his shoulders like he’s getting ready for a fight.

“Relax, Shamu. I just want to talk to McGarrett,“ he says, not rising to the bait.

“Never heard of him,“ Shamu says even though Danny can see McGarrett eyeing him from a booth in the corner of the bar.

“Steve McGarrett. Tall guy, obnoxious tattoos, likes to steal expensive art. He’s sitting twenty feet away from me and you want to tell me you don’t know who he is?” Danny says, barely refraining from yelling. He eyes the room but there’s no way to get around the guy and Danny knows he’ll have very little luck trying to go  _through_  him. 

“Sorry, brah. Can’t help you,” the big guy says just as McGarrett walks up to them.

“It’s okay Kamekona, I got this,” Steve says and the big guy reluctantly leaves them alone, “Agent Williams, to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asks with that annoying smirk that Danny used to hate so much.

Danny swallows and forces himself to stand his ground. If he we here in an official capacity he’d arrest Steve just to wipe that smile off his face, but he’s not here for the job. In fact, as far as his boss is concerned, he’s back in New York City with Rachel and Stan twiddling his thumbs while the bureau works his case. “I need your help,” he finally admits, the words feel like broken glass on his tongue but he’s come this far now and he’s not about to back down. This is bigger than his own vendetta. 

McGarrett stares at him for a moment before snorting in laughter. “Sure you do,” he laughs, walking away, and Danny panics.

“They have my daughter,“ he says to McGarrett’s back and is more relieved than he should be when he stops. The whole bar quiets after his outburst so he can hear clear as day Steve ask “Who?“ even though his back is still turned.

“Frank Salvo.”

“Jesus, Williams. What the hell did you do?“ Steve asks, turning back to face him.

“I was about to bring charges against him. I had a case that could put him away for the rest of his life. Only, before I can do anything with it, they take my baby girl and tell me I’m supposed to drop the case, destroy all my evidence,” Danny explains, the words rushing out of him like if he doesn’t get them out quick enough McGarrett will turn him away.

“I think you better come upstairs,” Steve says eventually.

Danny follows Steve through the bar, up the stairs, and into a modern apartment. There are two people sitting on the couch when he follows Steve into the living room, a movie paused on the TV. It takes him a moment but eventually, he recognizes them as Chin and Kono from a case he worked on years ago. He wasn’t the lead but the two cousins rap sheet had made quite the impression on him. They don’t move as he walks into the room but he can tell that they’re just as tense as he is, “Tell me what’s going on,” Steve says, sitting down on the couch with the other two, not bothering to make introductions. They probably already know who he is too.

“After I got taken off your case, I was transferred to Organized Crime. My first case was what we thought was a small-time drug ring. As I was investigating I found that the operation was massive and that it leads straight back to the Salvo family. We decided to keep the information close to the vest and see what else it could lead to. I was made the lead and over the last two years, I have linked the Salvos to illegal gambling, money laundering, drugs, guns, all sorts of nasty stuff. I was going to get an arrest warrant when I got a call. Frank- he put Grace on the line and made her tell me to drop the case or he’d kill her.”

“And what did you do?” Kono asks.

“I told my captain and he told me they would handle it,” he tells her, then in the interest of full disclosure, “The Bureau thinks that I’m in New York with my ex and her husband sitting on my thumbs.”

“And why aren’t you?” Chin asks.

“I think there’s a leak in my department. I was careful, there’s no way that Salvo could have known about the investigation unless he had someone on the inside telling him about it.”

“That’s quite the accusation,” Steve says but he at least sounds like he believes him.

“I know, and I’ve run it around in my head more times than I can count and its the only thing that I can think of,” Danny tells them and the room falls silent. He watches as Steve exchanges a look with Chin and Kono before he turns back to him, determination written all over his face.

“We’ll help you get your daughter back, now tell us everything you know.”

—

By the time Danny finishes bringing the three of them up to speed with his case and Grace’s kidnapping, it’s almost dawn. He’s been stifling his yawns for hours and Chin looks just about dead on his feet. Somehow, Steve and Kono both still look as fresh as daisy’s and Danny hates them for it.

“Let’s get some shuteye,” Steve says, running a hand over his face as he looks over the notes that the four of them have managed to scrounge together, “We’re all tired, we can’t come up with anything tonight. Get some sleep, get some food, and we’ll meet back here in a couple hours to start planning.”

Chin and Kono nod and shuffle out the door as he and Steve gather all of their notes and papers into piles. “I’ll get out of your hair,” Danny says, gesturing over his shoulder towards the door, “What, uh- what time are we meeting?”

Steve looks at him and Danny shuffles his feet under the gaze, “You have a place to stay?” Steve asks instead of answering him.

“I was gonna go find a motel.”

“Come on,” Steve tells him, turning and heading up the stairs. When Steve calls back down to him from the second floor, Danny finally follows, “You can sleep in this room,” Steve tells him opening the door to a sparsely decorated bedroom, “There are some old clothes of mine in the dresser that you can use.”

“Thanks,“ Danny says sincerely, turning to see Steve leaning against the door frame. Like this, all soft edges and goofy looks, Danny almost forget that Steve’s a master criminal. He watches as Steve goes to leave then turns back to him, his mouth open. He pauses for a second and seems to think better of it and turns back around to leave but stops before he can enter the other room.

“Why me?” Steve finally asks him.

“Sorry?”

“Out of everyone that you could have gone to for this, why did you choose me?”

“I needed someone outside of the system, someone I knew would have the skills to rescue Grace,” Danny tells him and Steve drops his gaze, nodding his head in understanding, “and I trust you,” Danny adds before Steve can leave. Steve looks shocked at his confession but then a small smile slowly starts to spread before he schools his expression. Danny memorizes the image, glad that he told Steve, and watches as Steve retreats into his own room.

—

The plan they come up with is deceptively simple which, in Danny’s opinion, makes it completely ludicrous. Chin is going to stay at the office to track down Franks mole and run roughshod over the Salvo’s security system so that Kono can just march into Frank Salvo’s mansion, steal Grace back and walk her out the back door. That’s the plan that three of the worlds top criminals came up with and it’s the plan that has Danny pulling his hair out.

“If you could just go and walk into Frank Salvo’s house and take Grace back don’t you think I would have done it already!” he shouts, but no one answers him. “This plan is insane. Salvo has dozens of hired goons, he has top of the line security cameras, he has dogs for Pete’s sake! Every alphabet agency for the last fifty years has been trying unsuccessfully to get into the Salvo mansion and you guys think you’re going to just  _walk in_?”

“We’re not just going to walk in,” Steve finally huffs, rolling his eyes at him.

“Yeah, Franks gonna invite me in himself,” Kono says with a smile that, in the day and a half that Danny’s known her, he’s already learned means nothing good.

“And why exactly would he do that?” Danny feels obliged to ask.

“He’ll think Kono is a representative for Hiro Noshimuri, looking to set up an agreement to expand the illegal gambling business the Yakuza have going in Hawaii,” Chin tells him, still focused on his laptop screen.

“And why exactly would he think  _that_?”

“Becuase I’m sleeping with Adam Noshimuri,” Kono says with a smile and Danny vows to stop asking her questions.

—

“You have to stop doing that,” Steve says, his gaze never straying from where he’s looking at surveillance footage of the Salvo mansion.

“Stop what?” he asks just to be facetious as he makes another circuit of the van.

“Wearing a hole in the floor,” Steve says, grabbing his arm as he passes by and pulling him down into the chair next to him, “We’re in a van, you rockin’ it around might call some unwanted attention to us.”

“My daughter is in there,” Danny says, ignoring the implication but Steve isn’t paying him any more attention so he turns to face out the computer screens too. Kono’s car pulls up a second later and the chauffeur opens the door for her. Even with the grainy footage, Danny can tell that she cuts an imposing figure and Salvo’s goons show her the respect that she demands as they lead her up to the mansion.

“Kono is in place,” Steve says into the comms. It crackles to life when Chin responds but then the van falls back into silence. If everything goes to plan they’ll all be radio silent until Kono has Grace outside but after a while, Steve turns to him and asks “Why did you get taken off my case?”

“Bureau wanted fresh eyes,” Danny says automatically, his eyes glued to the Salvo house across the road.

“You have a tone,” Steve tells him and Danny turns to look him in the eye, “when you lie, you have a tone.”

“I do not.”

“Yes you do, you’re using it right now.”

“I do not have a tone,” Danny says with finality, trying to put an end to Steves questioning. It doesn’t work but thankfully, before Steve can say anything more, Kono’s voice comes through the speakers again.

“Say that again Kono,” Steve tells her, fiddling with the adjustments until the static clears away.

“Danny, Grace won’t come with me. She tried to fight me off,” Kono says again and Danny can’t help the flash of pride for his little girl.

“Tell her Danno sent you, tell her that Danno sent you to get his monkey back,” he says.

Steve turns to look at him and Danny’s pulse jumps, realizing just how close they’ve gotten in the back of the van. Steve words from earlier pop into his head, along with the unbidden images of all the ways that the two of them could make the van rock. If the intensity of Steve’s gaze is any impression, he’s thinking the same thing. Just as Danny’s gaze drops from Steve’s eyes to his mouth, Kono speaks again.

“Grace is on her way out,” Kono tells them, breaking the sudden tension. Danny nods and swallows, tearing his gaze away from Steve to open the back door to the van just as Grace walks through a side gate in the Salvo’s fence.

He calls her name and Grace turns, taking off like a shot as soon as she sees him waiting for her. He grabs her and hauls her up into the back of the van, holding her tight and burying his face into her neck. He barely gets the back door closed when Steve starts the van and drives off, leaving their concealment and heading back towards the city.

He doesn’t let go of Grace the entire way back to Boston.

—

“Does the name Peterson mean anything to you?” Chin asks as soon as Danny walks back into the office. They all made it back to the bar okay, Grace is safely tucked in in the bed that he slept in last night and he called Rachel to let her know that they were both all right. For the first time since he got the call from Frank, he feels like he can breathe again.

“Rick Peterson?” he asks and Chin nods, “He was my training officer, I still consult with him on some of my cases. Why?” Danny asks, afraid that he’s not going to like the answer.

“He’s your mole,” Chin says matter of factly, pulling document after document up on the computer screen for Danny to see, “Emails, phone calls, text messages, I found a bank account in the Caymans with his name on it and an awful lot of money for a career FBI agent. So either he’s a very good gambler or-”

“Or he’s on Salvo’s payroll,“ Danny finishes for him, reading what he can off the screen.

“It looks like they started talking about ten years ago,” Kono says and he doesn’t miss the remorse in her voice.

“You’re sure?” Danny asks. If he takes this to the Bureau, if he accuses Rick of corruption, he needs to have concrete evidence. God, Rick drove him to the hospital when Grace was born. He scrubs a hand over his face, wondering how he ever could have missed that Rick was dirty.

“Completely,” Chin says.

—

“You got everything?” Steve asks him the next morning. There’s a taxi waiting downstairs to take him and Grace to the airport but he finds himself hesitating at Steve’s door.

“I’ve got the files on Rick and the backup files, plus the surveillance we got last night. I’m all set,” Danny says, glancing down the hall to where Grace is waiting by the stairs, “I don’t know how to thank you guys for this.”

“Maybe you can pull some strings, get our files shuffled to the bottom of the pile?” Steve laughs and Danny is intoxicated by the sound. 

“Sure thing,” Danny says. He could definitely do that, he still has a lot of friends in the White Collar division and they owe him favors. All it would take was one phone call to make sure that all their files got buried under so much paperwork they never saw the light of day again. Somehow it still doesn’t feel like enough. Steve gives him a soft smile, one that Danny knows means more than thank you and Danny feels emboldened, “Listen, last night, you asked me why I got taken off your case-”

“You don’t have to tell me, Danny,” Steve interrupts him, “I get why you don’t want to tell me. It’s your business and-”

Danny grabs Steve by the collar and pulls him down into a kiss before he can say anything else. Steve freezes under him and when Danny pulls away Steve is gaping at him, his mouth moving like he wants to say something but nothing comes out.

“That’s why” Danny confesses and turns on his heel to get Grace and leave.

—

_Three Days Later_

Danny feels like he races out of the office after his debriefing and conduct review. He can feel everyone’s stare following him through the halls and his tie feels like it’s too tight, like it’s strangling him even though he’s already loosened it three times. The elevator ride to the ground floor is torture and he pushes his way through the front door and into the cool, fresh air. He rips his tie off and takes in a deep breath, finally feeling the like no one is watching him.

“How’d it go?” an all too familiar voice calls out to him and he turns to see Steve Chin, and Kono all leaning against the FBI building. Something in him settles at the sight of the three of them as they approach him and Danny decides not to examine it too closely.

“Officially, three weeks unpaid suspension pending a hearing,” he tells them, knowing that if he doesn’t Chin will just hack his boss’ files anyway.

“And unofficially?” Kono asks him.

He lets his gaze fall before he admits, “Unofficially, I should start updating my resume. The FBI doesn’t take to well to their agents consorting with known criminals, especially now that they’re filing corruption charges against one of their own.”

“I'm sorry man but, ya know... if you’re gonna be looking for a job we might have something in mind for you,” Steve tells him.

“And what would that be?” Danny can’t help but ask.

“Well, we got thinking and there’s a lot of people out there who could use people with our skill sets,” Steve looks sheepish as he explains but Chin and Kono both look like they couldn’t be happier.

“People who have no one else to turn to for help,” Kono adds on.

“You want to be the good guys now?” Danny asks, incredulous.

“It felt good to be on the other side of the law,“ Chin tells him with a nonchalant shrug.

“Problem is, none of us really know how to do that,” Steve continues, “So if you maybe knew of someone who has experience with that kinda thing, who wants to help people who don’t have anywhere else to turn to and doesn’t mind working with criminals, we’d be interested.”

“I might know a guy,“ Danny tells them and they start walking as Chin and Kono launch into what they’ve already figured out for this new plan. Danny listens attentively, impressed by how much they’ve already pieced together. He looks over to Steve to see him smiling down at him and smiles back when Steve’s hand tangles with his.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](http://erandri.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
